Fixing shuttlebombings

[EthanQix]

Summary

In Traitor gamemode, more often than not, the evac shuttle reaches CentCom with one or several big craters and a lot of corpses resulting from said craters. Shuttle bombing is so endemic that it's pretty much expected, despite being universally considered as "lame" because of the amount of collateral damage it causes. It's also really bad for the gamemode, as Traitors are supposed to cause havoc during the shift.

The problem : greentexting vs complaining in OOC

When a player is a Traitor with a kill/maroon objective, they need several things : they need the target to die, and they need the target to not be revived. If those two conditions are met at the end of the round, they get the much coveted greentext line. As the game works now, waiting the whole shift and bombing the evac shuttle can fulfill both conditions with a near 100% success rate.

First, the target's intended behavior is to make it back to CentCom at the end of the shift, and currently the evac shuttle is the only way to do that. As such, the Traitor is almost certain their target will be on the evac shuttle (if they aren't, it's a greentext for the Traitor player anyway). Second, the evac shuttle is such a confined space compared to the station, that a large explosion is pretty much guaranteed to take out the target. Third, shuttle medbay is unlikely to have enough time to revive the target, especially if it had been caught in the explosion.

There lies the main problems in shuttle bombing : for the players caught in the explosion, this bomb was unfun and groan-worthy. For the game pace, the bombing Traitor didn't cause havoc during the shift like they were supposed to. And yet, the Traitor player gets rewarded with an easy greentext - the game itself is telling them that they did well. This is a big game design issue, and it needs to change.

What's been proposed

Several quickfix PRs have been opened already.

• Forbid shuttlebombing through a game rule : this increases admin workload, which is undesirable.
• Lock uplinks while in FTL : though we can justify bluespacing stuff in while in hyperspace should be impossible, Traitors can easily work around this limitation by buying their stuff before boarding the shuttle, or even buying a syndie bomb 3 seconds before FTL. Still results in crater.
• Make explosives not work on shuttle : makes little sense (why would NT not use that anti explosion field on the whole station), introduces a mechanics exception that would be a pain to code and maintain, easily worked around by Traitors who could just switch to mass carps or foam grenades instead.
• Make shuttle walls/floors indestructible : another weird exception to the rules, this should realistically only be only used for Arrivals. This wouldn't prevent shuttlebombing either, just the resulting spacing.

All of those do not address the deeper design issue, or at least do not work towards fixing it.

What would work towards a permanent solution

While most of the following would likely result in more work than the aforementioned quickfixes, they would also be much more efficient in fixing the problem for good.

• Lock uplinks when evac shuttle docks the station : this can be justified by the traitor's contact getting ready to meet them at CC and thus being unable to send them more stuff. While it could be worked around by buying stuff right before the shuttle docks, it would specifically prevent spawning a syndie bomb on the shuttle itself.
• Revert escape + kill objective changes #17890 : this PR was a direct consequence of (now banned) antag-roller Sosa whining they sometimes couldn't find their target and couldn't greentext. It has made escape pods useless, and has ensured everybody is using the evac shuttle instead. Reverting this PR would make the assassination target's presence on shuttle not a 100% certainty anymore, and push Traitors to try and deal with their target during the shift like they are supposed to.
• Rework evac further : Evacuation Rework docs#174 has been around for months and would fix most of evac's design issues, not to mention add a few interesting mechanics to play with. It just needs to be reviewed.
• Turn RR objectives to just killing objectives : it has been proposed to turn "kill/maroon" to "teach a lesson", in which the Traitor would only have to kill their victim once and not have to worry about them getting resurrected later. By removing the upside of killing their target right before they reach CC, this would lower the incentive for Traitors to wait until the very end of shift to get into gear.
• Give a "clean job" objective to Traitors : Traitors are supposedly stealth operatives for the Syndicate to do specific job - blowing up half the station/shuttle to get one guy dead is bound to induce undesirable cleanup costs, or at least PR headaches. Having an objective to keep civilian casualties under a set number would incentivize Traitors to use less massively destructive ways to get their target. Obviously sec/ERT casualties wouldn't count, and this objective would likely be incompatible with DAGD.

TL;DR

We need to disincentivize Traitors from sitting on their arse for the whole shift for a better chance at a greentext, not try and limit their options at the last minute.

[TeenSarlacc]

It has made escape pods useless, and has ensured everybody is using the evac shuttle instead.

one idea I've seen is giving centcomm enough docking ports for all the escape pods, and making escape pods count you as alive on centcomm

[southbridge-fur]

I think all the proposals you've promoted here are very good. I even want to add that when it comes to the "clean job" objectives, this creates an incentive for the traitor to both stop other syndicates from completing their objectives (for example if another antag has DAGD) and it gives traitors a reason to work with medical crews, disincentivizing the sabotage of medical infrastructure.